George Crabbe

George Crabbe was an English poet, known for his realistic and unsentimental portrayals of peasant life.

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• Where Plenty smiles - alas! she smiles for few,
  And those who taste not, yet behold her store,
  Are as the slaves that dig the golden ore,
  The wealth around them makes them doubly poor.
  • The Village, Book 1, line 136 (1783)

• The murmuring poor, who will not fast in peace.
  • The Newspaper (1785), line 158.

• A master passion is the love of news.
  • The Newspaper (1785), line 279.

• Our farmers round, well pleased with constant gain,
  Like other farmers, flourish and complain.
  • The Parish Register (1807), Part 1: "Baptisms", line 273.

• Oh, rather give me commentators plain,
  Who with no deep researches vex the brain;
  Who from the dark and doubtful love to run,
  And hold their glimmering tapers to the sun.
  • The Parish Register (1807), Part i, "Introduction". Compare "How commentators each dark passage shun, / And hold their farthing candle to the sun", Edward Young, Love of Fame, Satire vii, Line 97.

• Her air, her manners, all who saw admir'd;
  Courteous though coy, and gentle though retir'd;
  The joy of youth and health her eyes display'd,
  And ease of heart her every look convey'd.
  • The Parish Register (1807), Part ii, "Marriages".

• Habit with him was all the test of truth,
  It must be right: I’ve done it from my youth.
  • The Borough (1810), Letter iii, "The Vicar", line 138.

• In this fool's paradise he drank delight.
  • The Borough (1810), Letter xii, "Players".

• Books cannot always please, however good;
  Minds are not ever craving for their food.
  • The Borough (1810), Letter xxiv, "Schools".

• In idle wishes fools supinely stay;
  Be there a will, and wisdom finds a way.
  • The Birth of Flattery, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Tales in Verse (1812)

• Who calls a lawyer rogue, may find, too late
  Upon one of these depends his whole estate.
  • Tales iii, "The Gentleman Farmer".

• Cut and come again.
  • Tale vii, "The Widow's Tale".

• Better to love amiss than nothing to have loved.
  • Tale xiv, "The Struggles of Conscience". Compare: "'T is better to have loved and lost, Than never to have loved at all", Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam, xxvii.

• But 'twas a maxim he had often tried,
  That right was right, and there he would abide.
  • Tale xv, "The Squire and the Priest". Compare: "For right is right, since God is God", Frederick William Faber, The Right must win.

• 'T was good advice, and meant, my son, Be good.
  • Tale xxi, "The Learned Boy".

Tales of the Hall (1819)

• Secrets with girls, like loaded guns with boys,
  Are never valued till they make a noise.
  • "The Maid's Story", line 84 (1819)

• He tried the luxury of doing good.
  • Book iii, "Boys at School". Compare: "And learn the luxury of doing good", Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller, Line 22.

• To sigh, yet not recede; to grieve, yet not repent.
  • Book iii, "Boys at School". Compare: To sigh, yet feel no pain", Thomas Moore The Blue Stocking.

• And took for truth the test of ridicule.
  • Book viii, "The Sisters".

• Time has touched me gently in his race,
  And left no odious furrows in my face.
  • Book xvii, "The Widow". Compare: "Touch us gently, Time", Bryan W. Procter, Touch us gently, Time; "Time has laid his hand / Upon my heart, gently", Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Golden Legend, iv.